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Prosser Mustang recap |
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Prosser breathes a sigh of
relief
KENNEWICK — In the parlance of the Prosser football program, there would come a point, logically, that enough setbacks would overwhelm the possibility of a comeback.
The Mustangs got dangerously close to that point Saturday afternoon. They stood on the brink, got a full appreciation of their peril, and took one, cool step back. And then executed a game-winning play from the bleeding hand of an undaunted quarterback to the familiar grasp of his younger brother. Surviving a bizarre rash of four fumbles in the first half, top-ranked Prosser finally came alive with touchdowns on two of its final three possessions and the Mustangs escaped Lampson Stadium with a 14-7 victory over No. 2 Archbishop Murphy in the Class 2A state quarterfinals. With 15 seconds left, Kellen Moore connected with Kirby Moore from 19 yards out to complete the thrilling comeback. "It seemed like nothing was going right for us, but we stayed positive," said Kirby Moore, a sophomore. "The whole game we had setbacks but it was good to get through this. We've got to be ready for every game." His senior brother nearly wasn't. At the end of Friday's practice, Kellen Moore split open the middle finger of his throwing hand — a rather valuable piece of the Prosser arsenal with 162 career touchdowns — and was nearly scratched from the game. He had stitches put in to seal the wound without anesthetic for fear of swelling, but he declared himself ready Saturday with the help of a glove for protection.
"I knew it was bad the second I heard it. It sounded like a gunshot," said Prosser coach Tom Moore, Kellen's father. "Last night I didn't think he'd play. I had a script drawn up for Cody (Bruns) at quarterback."
Kellen Moore finished 12-for-18 for 142 yards but those relatively quiet numbers were more a reflection of ATM's ball control than his injured hand. His 1-yard dive on the first play of the final period pulled Prosser into a 7-7 tie after the Wildcats blanked the state's highest scoring team for three quarters. "We haven't had a game like this so we'll learn from it," Kellen Moore said while unraveling the blood-stained bandage from his finger. "The turnovers were killers and that's not something we're used to." Indeed, the Mustangs had lost only eight fumbles all season. But in one inexplicable half Prosser coughed it up on four of its first five possessions. It was thanks to the Mustangs' defense that Archbishop Murphy wasn't able to get more than a 7-0 lead at halftime. "There's nothing you can do but try to keep the kids positive," Tom Moore said of the turnovers. "Our defense really got us through that. It's scary when they're in four-down territory for three-quarters of the game. It's hard stopping that every time." Still trailing late in the third period, Prosser finally started sustaining drives and breaking off big plays with its ground game. ATM dropped more defenders in pass coverage and left fewer in the box, allowing Kody Frank and Bubba Hancock plenty of running room against a tiring defense.
Frank ran for 65 yards on just five carries to set up Prosser's first score, and Hancock, a defensive mainstay making one of his rare appearances in the backfield this season, powered the final two drives with 48 yards on eight carries. "We don't know what happened in the first half. We just knew we had to hold onto the ball and get going," Frank said. "Coach said your character shows when things aren't going right. We got rid of the mental errors and got it done." Prosser gained 195 of its 295 yards on its final three drives. ATM managed consecutive first downs on only one possession and finished with 157 yards rushing and one pass completion for 28 yards. "We played really good defense and did everything we could," said ATM coach Terry Ennis, whose team finished 11-1. "We did some things that were effective (on defense), but the schemes don't matter. It's how hard you play and I'm real proud of how hard we played." The Mustangs (12-0) advance to the semifinals and will face Centralia (11-1) next Saturday in the Tacoma Dome at 4 p.m. In Saturday's other quarterfinals, Lynden blanked Chehalis 35-0 and Tumwater edged Colville 28-25.
Archbishop Murphy 0 7 0 0 — 7 Prosser 0 0 0 14 — 14 ATM — Tony Houts 13 run (Ian Houts kick) Pro — Kellen Moore 1 run (Trevor Fox kick) Pro — Kirby Moore 19 pass from Ke. Moore (Fox kick) INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING — ATM, Tony Houts 16-64, Dejan Sughrim 17-36, Brad Gee 8-31, Russell Stiegler 3-22, John-Paul Blair 3-13, Nick Snyder 2-minus 9. Prosser, Kody Frank 7-78, Bubba Hancock 8-48, Steve Natho 6-31, Jarod Leighty 6-15, Kellen Moore 4-minus 19. PASSING — ATM, Blair 1-2-0-28, Sughrim 0-1-0-0. Prosser, Ke. Moore 12-18-0-142. RECEIVING — ATM, J.J. Quinlan 1-28. Prosser, Ki. Moore 5-56, Cody Bruns 4-38, Serg Torres 1-28, Corey Engbretson 1-15, Andy Moore 1-5.
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Prosser survives quarterfinal scareThis story was published Sunday, November 19th, 2006 By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer The Prosser football team rolled up its sleeves Saturday and rallied to beat Archbishop Murphy 14-7 in a 2A state quarterfinal at Lampson Stadium. Sounds like a clich, but literally, the No. 1-ranked Mustangs rolled up their sleeves to get the job done. Prosser had eight first-half fumbles, losing four of them, which several players and coaches attributed in part to the long sleeves of the undergarments the Mustangs wore in the first half. "They were getting a little slick," said sophomore Kirby Moore, who caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Kellen Moore with 15 seconds left for the winning score. "So at halftime, everybody rolled them up and got them out of the way." Prosser (12-0) didn't lose the ball once in the second half, and as a result, the offense clicked just enough against a tough Archbishop Murphy defense to advance the Mustangs to a semifinal date with Centralia, a 47-26 winner over Anacortes, at 4 p.m. next Saturday at the Tacoma Dome. "We had our troubles, but we kept gutting it out," Kirby Moore said. "We didn't work the whole summer for nothing." With the offense unable to hang on to the ball in the first half, the Mustangs defense came up big time and again. Prosser held AM (11-1) to 182 yards total offense, and despite the four first-half turnovers the Mustangs went into the locker room down just 7-0. "Our defense never hung our heads. We knew we had to step it up big time," said junior linebacker Keegan Pilot, who led Prosser with 12 tackles, two for loss. "Our offense wasn't putting points on the board, so we had to make a lot of big stops and get the ball back for them." AM's only score came when a botched handoff by Prosser put the ball at the Mustangs 26. Tony Houts scored on a 13-yard run with 10:02 left before halftime. "We were very pleased with our performance," said Wildcats coach Terry Ennis. "We worked our butt off on offense for those seven points. We weren't expecting to run through these guys at all." In the other locker room, there was a sense of relief. "We felt fortunate the score was what it was at halftime," said Prosser coach Tom Moore. "What's done is done. We just had to stay calm, come out and play the second half." AM had two time-consuming drives in the third quarter that yielded nothing, and Prosser finally got on the board on the first play of the fourth quarter when Kellen Moore twisted over left guard on second effort for a 1-yard touchdown sneak. The Mustangs were held on fourth down at the AM 12 on their next drive with four minutes left after marching from inside their own 1. But Pilot knifed into the backfield to tackle Dejan Sughrim on third down for a 3-yard loss to force a punt, and Prosser got the ball back at the Wildcats 37 with 1:56 to play. Bubba Hancock gained 9 yards on three carries, then Kellen Moore hit Kirby Moore on a 9-yard rollout with 29 seconds left. After an incompletion, the Mustangs called "3 Vertical," with Cody Bruns in the left slot going down the middle of the field and Kirby Moore going down the left sideline. Kellen looked one of the safeties off his brother and onto Bruns, and after Kirby cleared a jam at the line of scrimmage, he found an open spot in the zone and hauled in the winning pass. "We just didn't want to score too early," Tom Moore said. "We knew exactly what we were doing. We knew how much time was left. Their kids were getting tired, so we ran the ball, then we took a shot with the pass. "We ran a play that we hadn't run all game. They had two high safeties, so we felt we'd have a shot with Kirby on the outside. We knew that was the ballgame." Kellen, who had stitches put in his left (throwing) hand after smashing it on a helmet during Friday's practice, finished 12-of-18 for 143 yards. Kirby Moore had five catches for 56 yards, and Bruns caught four passes for 38 yards, giving him 101 receptions for the season. Kody Frank ran for 73 of his game-high 77 yards in the second half before suffering a minor injury. Hancock replaced him and finished with 47 yards on eight carries and also had 10 tackles at safety. Linebacker Bobby Humphreys added nine tackles.
SCORING PLAYS ATM -- Tony Houts 13 run (Ian Houts kick) P -- Kellen Moore 1 run (Trevor Fox kick) P -- Kirby Moore 19 pass from Ke.Moore (Fox kick) STATISTICS RUSHING--ATM, Dejan Sughrim 18-44, T.Houts 15-56, Brad Gee 7-31, John-Paul Blair 4-12, Russel Stiegler 3-22, Nick Snyder 2-(minus 9), team 1-(minus 2). P, Bubba Hancock 8-47, Kody Frank 7-77, Steve Natho 6-31, Jarod Leighty 5-18, Ke.Moore 4-(minus 2), team 1-(minus 18). PASSING--ATM, Blair 1-2-0-28, Sughrim 0-1-0-0. P, Ke.Moore 12-18-0-143. RECEIVING--ATM, JJ Quinlan 1-28. P, Ki.Moore 5-56, Cody Bruns 4-38, Cory Engbretson 1-15, Andy Moore 1-6, Serg Torres 1-28. FIRST DOWNS--ATM 9, P 13. FUMBLES-LOST--ATM 2-0, P 8-4. PENALTIES-YARDS--ATM 10-80, P 1-5.
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